The present disclosure relates generally to absorbent articles intended for personal wear, and more particularly to disposable pull-on absorbent articles having a tear away section for quick and easy removal of the article from the wearer.
Exemplary pull-on absorbent articles include training pants, diaper pants, incontinence products, disposable underwear, medical garments, absorbent swim wear, and the like. Pull-on type absorbent articles are absorbent articles configured to be donned by pulling the article up around the wearer's legs. When soiled, typical pull-on type absorbent articles must be doffed by sliding the pant down around the wearer's legs, which can result in bodily exudates (e.g., urine or fecal matter) spilling or leaking out of the training pant.
Toilet training is a process that includes many training techniques and aids that can be used by parents or other caregivers. One aspect of the total toilet training process is changing from the use of diapers to the use of training pants to help the child understand that he or she should now use the toilet. This process involves teaching a child to remove the training pant before going to the bathroom. When typical pull-on training pants are used as a training aid, the training pant is pulled down around the wearer's legs before the wearer can go to the bathroom. When the child has an urgent need to go to the bathroom, the process of removing typical training pants can be slow, and often ineffective in teaching a child to use the toilet.
Some current training pants include refastenable side seams that enable the training pant to be donned and doffed without pulling the training pant up or down the wearer's legs. Such refastenable side seams facilitate both donning and doffing the training pant, as the training pants do not have be pulled up or down the wearer's legs to don or doff the training pant. However, users of such training pants are often unaware that the side seams are refastenable, and often only utilize the refastenable side seams in removing the training pant from the wearer. Providing such refastenable side seams on training pants requires the use of additional materials (e.g., hook and loop type fasteners), and often makes the manufacturing process more complex, thereby increasing the cost of manufacturing such training pants. As a result, the refastenable side seams of such training pants are a relatively costly feature when used only in removing the training pant from the wearer.
Other current training pants include side seams that can be torn to remove the training pant from the wearer. However, such training pants typically require the use of two hands to tear the side seams. As a result, the side seams of such training pants can only be torn one at a time, thus increasing the overall time needed to remove the training pant.
Accordingly, a need exists for a pull-on absorbent article that can be quickly and easily removed from the wearer.